Welcome to CounterTobacco.org’s “News and Research Roundup!” Each month we post a summary of the latest research, reports, and news stories on counteracting tobacco product sales and marketing at the point of sale (POS). Keeping up with what’s happening in the POS movement all across the country can help you choose policies and strategies that work best for your community. New research can help provide support for your work and evidence for the importance of the “War in the Store.” Have a story you don’t want us to miss? E-mail it to us!

New Research

Price Policy

According to data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study (2013-2015), 13.7% of youth received coupons for tobacco products within the last 6 months. Youth who were female, live in a non-urban area, have high mental health symptoms, are current or former tobacco users, and who have a favorite tobacco ad were more likely to receive coupons than other youth. Youth who had never used tobacco at baseline but received coupons were more likely to report having used tobacco a year later. Those who received coupons were also more likely to have used a new tobacco product and to be current tobacco users at follow-up. This evidence shows that coupons may encourage initiation of tobacco use and experimentation with new tobacco products.

This study modeled per capita cigarette sales as a function of price and found that while a $4 minimum price would have a minimal effect on consumption, raising the minimum price of a pack of cigarettes to $10 would reduce the number of packs sold per year in the United States by 5.7 billion and would result in about 10 million smokers quitting. Setting a minimum price for cigarettes is a policy option available to the FDA under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, and this study indicates that it could be an effective way to decrease tobacco use and promote health equity, reducing use among lower income groups to a greater extent and reducing geographic disparities due to price.

Policy Adoption and Impact

Ontario, Canada implemented a ban on menthol cigarettes on January 1, 2017. One month after the ban took effect, 29.1% of menthol smokers had attempted to quit, a larger proportion than the 14.5% who previously said they would quit due to the ban. Of menthol smokers who made a quit attempt, 80% reported that the menthol ban affected their decision at least a little. A larger proportion of menthol smokers (29.1%) also reported using other flavored tobacco or e-cigarette products compared with the 5.8% who had said they would do so before the ban went into effect. While menthol cigarettes only make up 5% of cigarette sales in Canada, this study indicates that a menthol ban may encourage cessation, but it may also lead to product switching if other flavored products are not also restricted.

All Canadian provinces implemented point-of-sale display bans for tobacco between 2004 and 2010. Using data from the International Tobacco Control Canada Survey from 2006 to 2011, researchers found that the point-of-sale display bans were associated with lower odds of smoking relapse, an association that strengthened after adjusting for retailer density and proximity, although the results were not statistically significant.

This meta-analysis found that across 11 studies, adolescents were more likely to be current smokers if they live an area with greater tobacco retailer density around their homes, though not if there was a higher level of tobacco retailer density around their schools. This suggests that restricting the number of tobacco retailers in residential areas may help reduce smoking among adolescents.

This article compares smokefree and Tobacco 21 policy adoption in Missouri, including the policies’ rates of adoption, media frames used, policy leaders’ perceptions, and related coalition activities. The authors find that Tobacco 21 policies require a shorter timeframe and fewer resources for policy adoption, can be targeted to a smaller group of stakeholders, and are perceived as less politically risky. These factors give Tobacco 21 policies an advantage over other tobacco control measures.

E-Cigarettes

In 2016, 4 out of 5 (20 .5 million) middle- and high-school students were exposed to e-cigarette advertising. Exposure was highest in retail stores with nearly 7 out of 10 (17.7 million) middle- and high-school students exposed to e-cigarette advertisements in retail stores, which represents a 24% increase from 2014.

Data from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey show that among middle-school and high-school-aged youth, for non-smokers, but not smokers, exposure to e-cigarettes advertisements was associated with an increase in their intentions to use e-cigarettes. In addition, greater exposure to e-cigarette ads was associated with greater perceived social benefits of e-cigarette use and with perceiving that e-cigarettes are easier to buy. Researchers suggest that this evidence shows that e-cigarette ads may be more effective as attracting new users than at encouraging current cigarette smokers to switch to e-cigarettes.

A longitudinal study of adolescents 11-18 years old conducted between April and October 2016 found that participants who were ever e-cigarette users at baseline and escalated their e-cigarette use were more likely to have initiated cigarette smoking at follow-up. Similarly, participants who were ever cigarette smokers at baseline who escalated their smoking were more likely to have initiated e-cigarettes use at follow-up.